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Lot Essay
We are grateful to art historian Juan Carlos Pereda for his assistance cataloguing this work.
In a letter dated from the late 1920s from Rufino Tamayo to contemporary poet and man of letters, José Gorostiza, the artist wrote “Mi querido Pepe, Usted me escribe expresando cierta admiración que estoy muy lejos de merecer” (My dear Pepe, You write expressing a certain admiration of which I am far from deserving). In the same note, Tamayo expressed his dreams of going to Paris one day and finding a place where he would be happy although perhaps poor. Tamayo concluded his correspondence by urging his friend to write back soon.[1] Gorostiza, the author of the book The New School of Painting in Mexico (1939), supported Tamayo’s work and that of other artists at the time with great enthusiasm.[2] The letter was published in August 1991 in La Vuelta de los Días magazine in Mexico two months after the artist’s death. In that same issue of the journal, another celebrated cultural figure, artist Juan Soriano, was interviewed at length about his friendship with Tamayo. He could not recollect when and how they had actually met; how he often met up with the artist in Mexico or even in New York where Tamayo went out of his way to be a perfect host and toured him all over town, especially to Harlem; and, how strange that after all the years, he could not summon the details of their many conversations—but he conceded that between them a close friendship had transpired over the span of many years. Indeed, the late art critic and art historian Raquel Tibol personally recalled how few friends Tamayo seemed to have had but how deeply connected they were to the artist.
Juan Carlos Pereda, art historian and noted expert on Tamayo’s work, notes that in Bienvenido or Bienvenida, Tamayo aesthetically pays homage to the meaning of fraternity and brotherhood expressed simply but nevertheless eloquently through the two sporting male figures who, are enveloped in an atmosphere of diaphanous luminosity.[3] Stylistically, the artist’s use of brilliant colors, mostly dazzling variations of the rich corn-yellow and grey, the color of the many temples that are part of the vast national patrimony of Tamayo’s ancient homeland, together with the architectural setting he has erected for his figures, endows the composition with a serene and unparalleled harmony. As the friends glance into the viewer’s space, they convey a feeling of welcoming as well. Noticeably, Tamayo also pays homage to his youth evoking a scene that shares affinities with the cubist masters he studied during those early days he spent away from home learning his craft as a painter but always evoking its eternal beauty, power and the colors he first discovered as a child. As yet another great Mexican literary figure José Corredor-Matheos has so succinctly affirmed about Tamayo’s palette: “The color is something living. Rather than being applied, it seems to come from within the picture.”
Margarita Aguilar, Doctoral Candidate, The Graduate Center, New York.
1 Raquel Tibol, the late art critic and art historian, recalls how the early letters from the artist to the noted poet are
still part of the poet’s personal archives. It appeared in the Mexican journal La Vuelta de los Días on August 1991.
2 Gorostiza’s book also included critical analysis of the works by artists Julio Castellanos, Jesús Guerrero Galván, Roberto Montenegro, and others.
3 J. C. Pereda’s analysis of the present work.
In a letter dated from the late 1920s from Rufino Tamayo to contemporary poet and man of letters, José Gorostiza, the artist wrote “Mi querido Pepe, Usted me escribe expresando cierta admiración que estoy muy lejos de merecer” (My dear Pepe, You write expressing a certain admiration of which I am far from deserving). In the same note, Tamayo expressed his dreams of going to Paris one day and finding a place where he would be happy although perhaps poor. Tamayo concluded his correspondence by urging his friend to write back soon.[1] Gorostiza, the author of the book The New School of Painting in Mexico (1939), supported Tamayo’s work and that of other artists at the time with great enthusiasm.[2] The letter was published in August 1991 in La Vuelta de los Días magazine in Mexico two months after the artist’s death. In that same issue of the journal, another celebrated cultural figure, artist Juan Soriano, was interviewed at length about his friendship with Tamayo. He could not recollect when and how they had actually met; how he often met up with the artist in Mexico or even in New York where Tamayo went out of his way to be a perfect host and toured him all over town, especially to Harlem; and, how strange that after all the years, he could not summon the details of their many conversations—but he conceded that between them a close friendship had transpired over the span of many years. Indeed, the late art critic and art historian Raquel Tibol personally recalled how few friends Tamayo seemed to have had but how deeply connected they were to the artist.
Juan Carlos Pereda, art historian and noted expert on Tamayo’s work, notes that in Bienvenido or Bienvenida, Tamayo aesthetically pays homage to the meaning of fraternity and brotherhood expressed simply but nevertheless eloquently through the two sporting male figures who, are enveloped in an atmosphere of diaphanous luminosity.[3] Stylistically, the artist’s use of brilliant colors, mostly dazzling variations of the rich corn-yellow and grey, the color of the many temples that are part of the vast national patrimony of Tamayo’s ancient homeland, together with the architectural setting he has erected for his figures, endows the composition with a serene and unparalleled harmony. As the friends glance into the viewer’s space, they convey a feeling of welcoming as well. Noticeably, Tamayo also pays homage to his youth evoking a scene that shares affinities with the cubist masters he studied during those early days he spent away from home learning his craft as a painter but always evoking its eternal beauty, power and the colors he first discovered as a child. As yet another great Mexican literary figure José Corredor-Matheos has so succinctly affirmed about Tamayo’s palette: “The color is something living. Rather than being applied, it seems to come from within the picture.”
Margarita Aguilar, Doctoral Candidate, The Graduate Center, New York.
1 Raquel Tibol, the late art critic and art historian, recalls how the early letters from the artist to the noted poet are
still part of the poet’s personal archives. It appeared in the Mexican journal La Vuelta de los Días on August 1991.
2 Gorostiza’s book also included critical analysis of the works by artists Julio Castellanos, Jesús Guerrero Galván, Roberto Montenegro, and others.
3 J. C. Pereda’s analysis of the present work.